


House of Mist

by HWPD



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Eliksni, F/M, Guardain, House - Freeform, Seattle, Tags, Tags May Change, Uh...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2018-12-10 03:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HWPD/pseuds/HWPD
Summary: I woke in a flooded metro station on the west coast of the ruins of the American empire, and I had to cross what was left of North America until I found a ship capable of making it to the Tower. It wasn't a fancy Jumpship either, it was an old commercial shuttle just inside the Manhattan Nuclear Zone. Three years...way over the average, it wasn't all walking though.





	1. Prologue

**[Prologue]**

I died. I do not know exactly how, or when, just that I did.

But then I came back. Recast in Light by a Traveler's Ghost. At the time I didn't know anything, what had happened, where I was. The only hint of my identity was a faded security badge and a sidearm that had sat beside my corpse for centuries.

Apparently my name was Nicole, and I had awoken in a partially flooded metro tunnel in the ruins of Seattle.

The small machine that floated beside me didn't have much to say on who I use to be, just what I had become.

I was a Guardian.

Supposedly, a Guardian was a warrior of the Light. Reborn to defend humanity, and the Traveler, from the minions of the Darkness.

The story we're told upon arrival to the 'Last City' is pretty cut and dry. Centuries ago, the Traveler arrived and pushed Humanity into an age of technological innovation that they call the Golden Age. But then the Darkness came and knocked us down. That the Fallen, or Eliksni as they call themselves, along with the Hive, Vex, and Cabal, are all filled with Darkness like we are with the Light.

It's a story meant to give Guardians that don't remember anything, something to fight for.

The average time for a new Guardian to reach the Tower is somewhere around twenty-six hours, and as soon as they get there they're given that speech, some armor, and a gun, then thrown back out into the field so they can 'see' that the Tower was absolutely right.

At the time, what many don't realize is that the enemy they're sent out against is probably conditioned to shoot Guardians on sight, since we do the same. A never-ending loop that will get us nowhere if peace is ever to happen. Of course, that's just with the Eliksni, the Tower is sort of right about the Hive and Cabal.

I don't blame the Vanguard, they were guardians themselves in the past, and have experienced plenty of things to the contrary. The Eliksni are not interested in peace either, but being open to the idea would help.

So about that average time to the Tower, that wasn't how my trip went. I had to cross what was left of North America until I found a ship capable of making it to the Tower. And it wasn't a fancy Jumpship either, it was an old, fat, commercial shuttle just inside the Manhattan Nuclear Zone.

I had only been at the Tower for two weeks when I met the Exo named Brutus… That fucking Robot…


	2. ...What?

**  
294km off the coast of the Last City  
** **+1124 Days**

* * *

The ship shuddered as it passed through another thunderstorm, the third one since they took off from what was left of Manhattan. The ship barely maintained a pressurized cabin, and against all odds, the heaters still functioned, something Nicole was grateful for. She had to love the old Golden age technology, it lasted forever.

Her Ghost was piloting the ship, so she leaned back in the ruined seat and sighed. It had taken her just over seven months to find something to cross the Atlantic, and she didn't even know how to fly it. Of course, that's what the Ghost was for, at the moment.

Her Ghost hadn't said much, Nichole assumed that he, like her, didn't know much else.

Nicole gripped the pilot's stick as the craft shook again. Another lightning strike to the wing. Tugging at the stick was useless, the controls were all shot and would need to be fixed when they got wherever they were headed.

"I'm going to bring us out of the clouds now." the Ghost said.

"Alright, are we close?" She asked. The ship dropped down out of the clouds. Nicole could see land below them. Everything was green and overgrown. Whatever had been there was long gone by now.

"We are approaching the air identification zone for the City." He said.

Almost on cue, the old radio crackled and a voice spoke from a hanging headset. " _Attention; Ship pinging as Skylanes Sierra-One-Zero-Two-Romeo-Charlie, this is Vanguard Tower Control. You are entering restricted airspace. Identify or you will be shot down."_

Nicole looked over at her Ghost hovering over the controls. "Let them know you're a new guardian coming in." He said, the small tabs stuck onto his ball rotated and twitched.

She took a breath and pulled the headset onto her head. "Tower ATC… this is One-Zero-Two-Romeo-Charlie, I am… uh… a new Guardian, my Ghost brought me here."

The other end was quiet for a moment. " _...Roger that. Then have your Ghost send telemetry to confirm position."_

Her Ghost twitched. "Here it goes…"

" _Telemetry data received. Outpost now has visual, one moment... Your ship is too large to set down in the Tower hanger. Ghost, proceed to Tower runway Seven-West. Runway is being cleared for your approach. Welcome to the Last City, Guardian."_

"You may want to hold on to something. This craft  _is_ centuries old." Her Ghost said.

Nicole looked around the cockpit, the seat belts had rotted away long ago and the seat itself wasn't in a much better state. Once again, she took hold of the flight stick. "You can just revive me again, hmm?" she said with a worried smile.

The small machine turned to look at her with the most serious expression a ball could have. "Only if we don't explode on impact."

The craft banked and slowed, its engines winding down for its final approach. It came down on the runway hard. The landing gear suspension snapped, and the stiff tires tore apart from friction. Yet the landing gear's brace held and the shuttle slid down the runway on its rims. The wing flaps lowered to their full extension and brought the craft to a gradual, but rough stop.

"Well… we didn't explode. Good work, Ghost." Nicole said.

"Thank you." The ball simply vanished into her armor.

Nicole turned and pushed open the pressure door between the cockpit and the passenger compartment. She pushed her way through rusted chairs and the glowing blue chunks that cluttered the floor. The cargo hold was apparently full of the stuff, her Ghost said it was important for making things, but he didn't have the capabilities to actually use it to the cubes' full extent.

The outer door creaked as she opened it to the outside world. Nicole looked on in awe, at the massive sphere that sat in place at the center of the vast city that spanned the horizon.

"So that's the Traveler?" she asked her Ghost.

It's voice came from the speakers in her helmet. "Yes, that is it… That is what made me, and helped bring  _you_  back."

"Damn… It's bigger than I thought." Nicole tore her gaze from the Traveler and the city and looked down the runway. A cluster of vehicles were approaching with flashing lights. It occurred to her once more that she did just land in a craft that was centuries old and could burst into flames at any given moment.

She dropped down from the door and quickly walked away from the still smoking rims. The emergency vehicles came to a stop, and the crews doused the hot parts of the ship with foam.

A woman hopped off the back of one of the trucks. She wore a set of bulky armor and a silver sash hung from her waist. "Are you the new Guardian, Hunter?"

"My name is Nicole, not Hunter. And yes, I suppose I am," she replied.

The woman chuckled. "I didn't mean your name, you're a Hunter, it's your class," she said.

"Oh, my mistake." Nicole held out her hand to shake. "Pleasure to meet you …?" She paused to let the woman introduce herself.

The woman reached out and took Nicole's hand with a firm grip. "Matilda, I'm part of City Defense. They sent me over in case you were actually non-human."

"Just you?" Nicole asked.

Matilda laughed again. "I am a Titan, ma'am. I'm all they need."

"I take it you're very skilled?" Nicole asked.

"You are really new, aren't you." The Titan said. "Your Ghost not fill you in?"

Nicole's eyes glanced up at the small icon on her visor. "No, he doesn't talk much."

" _Maybe now that you've finally reached the Tower, I can change that."_ The Ghost piped up privately.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "He's been helpful with everything else, just not information."

"Very well then. I am a Titan, we are the Warriors of the Light. The so-called blunt force of the Traveler's will. Then there are the Warlocks, they spend a lot of time in their books, but they're a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield." She stopped and looked Nicole over. "And Hunters… Well. They spend a lot of time in the wild, fans of knives and ranged weapons… Speaking of which… How long were you out there?"

Nicole nodded her head up to her Ghost's icon so he could give an exact time. The white machine appeared over her shoulder. "It's been one thousand one hundred and twenty-four days."

"Damn, long time. Just proves point one." Matilda looked down at the pair of throwing knives on Nicole's belt. "There's two… What's your preferred weapon?"

The definite Hunter pulled the strange brown weapon off her back to show the Titan. "This, and my Sidearm."

"That's a Fallen wire rifle… Definitely ranged." Matilda chuckled. "Yep, you are most certainly a Hunter." She looked over Nicole's armor, something she had neglected to really look at before. "Wait, your gear is Fallen too? If I didn't know any better, you could be a Vandal."

Nicole laughed and turned, showing off the red caps she had from a Dreg and welded to her side. "Had to blend in somehow."

"Yeah, leave your helmet off while here, or get a new set of armor. I don't want you shot by someone who thinks you really are Fallen." The Titan said.

"Hmm, I see your point." Nicole reached up and removed her helmet, clipping the back end to a loop on her belt. When Nicole looked back up, Matilda was looking closely at her face. "What is it?"

"You're eyes glow like an Awoken, but you're a regular Human…" She shrugged. "I don't know what's up though, maybe the Warlock Vanguard would know something. Either way, you need to go up the tower to meet with the Hunter rep and then the Shipwright, probably."

"How do I get up to the Tower from here?" Nicole looked around, "Could they tow my ship somewhere out of the way? I would like to get some personal effects out after I get settled here."

"Yes, if you follow that yellow marked fence into the old terminal, the lifts inside will take you up to the Tower Commons." Matilda pointed over to a building at the base of the Tower Nicole had landed near.

Nicole nodded. "Thank you. Perhaps I'll see you again." She waved to the Titan and walked off towards the lift.

"Don't count on it, there are a lot of us!" Matilda shouted out before Nicole left earshot.

The old doors slid open, rust being ground off its gears. She walked into what looked like an abandoned airport terminal. The rows of chairs covered in blankets and dust. In certain areas, plants had grown through cracks in the flooring.

An advertisement for some sort of rifle was haphazardly slapped up on a pillar. The paper was a bit worn, but still highly legible.  _Suros Weapons Foundry_ was printed above the white plated weapon in bold black lettering, though the  _R_ was red. The gun itself was sleek, with a red creatures painted to the side.

A voice spoke up from the darkness. "Ah, lookin' at the DIS-47. Good gun, but I am more of a Regime guy myself."

She turned around to see a group of Guardians seated around a table playing cards. Their table was illuminated by a couple camping lanterns placed in the small space. They were fellow Hunters, from the look of their gear. The card table was hidden behind a stack of cargo crates, which explained why she did not see it coming in. One of them nodded to her, he must have been the one who spoke.

Nicole shook her head. "Honestly, haven't heard of either of them. This is my first time back to any sort of civilization."

The Hunter humphed. "Ah, spending time in the wild, that's something I haven't done in a while. Though you don't look like a baby guardian." He looked over at the others at the table, who all nodded their heads in agreement. "How long?"

"Two years, I think." She said with a shrug.

"Hmm..." He looked over her armor. "You some sort of Fallen lover?"

She looked back down at herself, and made up a lie about it. It probably would not be a good idea for them to know the real way she got it. "I scavenged it. Years in the ruins and I had to blend in somehow, but I do respect them as an enemy." Nicole waved her head back towards the elevator. "I really should go up the Tower though."

"Whatever you say, bug hugger." The Hunter chuckled and waved her off. "See you around."

She sighed, shook her head, and headed to the lift. Nicole pressed the button that was labeled as the Tower Commons and was sent up the base massive tower. The door dinged and slid open once she reached the top. The Commons itself was sort of unimpressive, but the view was breathtaking. The Great Machine, or the Traveler as her fellow Humans called it, floated out above the city way in the distance.

Her Ghost piped up from her helmet. " _You should probably listen to what Matilda said. Go meet the Vanguard."_

She looked down at the helmet clipped to her side. "Fine, I'll do that. But I will go see the shipwright first." Nicole looked up at the directory to see where the Shipwright was located and followed the directions into the hangar. She had to pass through some sort of weird security like checkpoint, but it was unmanned and there were guns just sitting on the wall. It was unusual, but she just chocked it off as something they do around here.

The hangar was a large open space, the small vendor and offices were on catwalks above the main hangar floor. It reminded her a bit of some of the military sites she had visited on her journey to the Tower. Though this was still in good repair and functioning. She walked up to the stall with the big  _Shipwright_  sign.

A woman was sitting up on a crate in the back. "Hey, Guardian. Haven't seen you around here before, I'm Amanda Holliday, the best Shipwright around." Her voice had a slight southern accent, it appeared that some of the people from the southern part of the North American Empire was still around.

"Uh, hello. I just arrived and-"

The Shipwright cut her off. "Is that your wreck on the runway?"

Nicole nodded. "Well...yes... yes it is."

She hopped off the crate and walked over to a screen showing a runway camera view. "Ah, an old Pterosaur Vi-Two-twenty-one. She's a beaut' when all cleaned up."

"That's actually why I came over here," Nicole said. "Can you fix it?"

"Can I fix it?" Holliday questioned. "Hunter, of course I can. As long as you've got the Glimmer."

Nicole had heard of it before, the Fallen had mentioned it a few times. She had never really cared about money, "Glimmer?"

"Glimmer, cubes of matter. Glowin' blue?" The Shipwright said. "The re-programmable matter we make just about everything out of nowadays."

"Oh! So that's what that stuff is... Check the ship's cargo hold, I hope that will be enough." The belly of the ship was filled with several crates of tightly packed cubes that glowed a brilliant blue. Her Ghost had made a comment about how it was valuable, but not  _how_  it was.

"Well, alright then Guardian," Holliday said, hopping off the container. "I'll head down and get to work then."

"Um, sounds good. Is there some way for you to contact me, or me contact you?" Nicole asked.

"I've got a com unit, and you have a Ghost." Holliday said. "Just gimme your CID and we'll be good."

Nicole did not know what a CID was, but she summoned her Ghost in her hand anyway. He spun and looked around. "I've transmitted the communicator identification number to your device."

"Alrighty then, I'll send you a message with an update on your ship when I know something." The Shipwright opened up a gate and walked through. "I'll go get to work."

Nicole walked across a balcony on one of the lower levels of the tower. It had been two weeks since she had arrived there, and she was anxious to actually visit the Last City. However, the Vanguard had restricted her access to just the Tower. Maybe they didn't like her 'Fallen' look.

Holliday had informed her that the ship would take about a month of repairs to get it back to working order, but she was not in a hurry. Nicole stopped as someone fell from the balcony above and smashed into the ground in front of her. Their Ghost appeared and revived the Exo, who immediately went over to the next railing and hopped over the side.

"Uh... what..." She ran over and saw that he was still there, holding onto the lip on the other side.

The Exo looked up at her from his view. "Oh, hello!"

"Are... you alright?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah... fine. Why?" He replied.

"Well, you're just hanging off the ledge." She glanced down over the edge.

"Yeah, its cool though." He said. "I mean, we can't die."

"Well I suppose that is cool..." Nicole nodded slightly, she had experienced that moment more than a few times on her journey. The high that went with it was a strange sensation. "Are you new?"

"I might be, why?" The Exo pulled himself up and back onto the balcony.

"Because you were just hanging off the side of the Tower," she waved her hands over towards the edge.

"Well... what about that makes you think I'm 'new'?" He asked, a playful tone present in his synthetic voice.

"Don't know, just seems that it does." Nicole said.

"Okay, well... I am. I've been here for a week."

"Ah, I got here two weeks ago" Nicole nodded.

"Oh so you just were revived too?" The Exo asked.

"No, it just took me a while to make it to the Tower."

"Oh cool. It took me a while to get here too, I was revived in a hospital in Meridian Bay on Mars... I'm pretty sure." He held out his hand and his Ghost appeared. "Jinx?"

"What is it, Guardian?" It asked, his Ghost had a feminine voice, contrary to hers.

"How did you find me?" He asked the ball.

"You were in a pile of dirt in a hospital... Floor seven, room forty-two. Meridian Bay, Mars." Jinx spouted off some coordinates that meant nothing to Nicole.

The Exo stopped looking at the Ghost and then to Nicole. "You have nice eyes." His Ghost stopped talking and turned to face the Exo as well.

"Oh... um thank you." Nicole felt herself blush a bit.

"Would you like to continue this conversation over a drink or something?" he asked.

"Mmm... sure." Nicole nodded. "Is there a good place to go?"

"There isn't much in the Tower Commons, but a few levels down there is a place with decent food," he said. The Exo led the way down a stairwell and into a small tavern built along an open span in the Tower's supports. They took a seat and a Frame brought over a couple drinks automatically. "My names Brutus, by the way."

"Ah, I'm Nicole. Good to meet you." She introduced herself as well. They tapped their glasses and took a drink. It was interesting having contact with someone, after a year of walking through the wastes. Everyone she met on the tower, short of Holliday and Matilda, seemed to avoid her. Maybe it was not anything really, perhaps Guardians just normally passed one another without saying a word.

"So what is your story? What took you so long to get here?" Brutus asked.

"Ah, well, it's a long one..." Nicole trailed off and took a sip.

"We've got time" He nodded.

"Then here it goes..."


	3. Meeting the Locals

**5 meters underground, Old Shoreline, Northern Seattle  
** **+0 Days**

* * *

The small machine drifted through the ruined tunnel. Centuries ago, it was filled with commuters trying to get to work or the next city over; now all that lived here were the ferns and moss that clung to life where the ground had given way and the light shown through.

There were plenty of bodies to choose from, but none of the bones contained the Light it needed. Something clattered to the ground somewhere behind it. The Ghost spun, it had already escaped death once already at the cost of one of its fins. It cannot afford to get that close again. It had never returned to Venus after that.

The machine zoomed off through another flooded tunnel. There was barely enough space to fly between the surface and the ceiling. Whatever disturbed it at the last station would be unable to follow it now.

The Ghost came back up into another metro station, and most of the ceiling had crumbled over the tracks. Its eye lit up, scanning the bones hidden beneath the moss. When suddenly, it picked up a trace of Light.

Was this it? Had the Ghost finally found its Guardian? It quickly followed the signal to the source.

It was!

The bones were old, and partially hidden beneath a holed flak plate. An ancient ballistic helmet had rolled off the skull ages ago, a cluster of dandelions now grew out of it. The Ghost turned and broadly scanned the rest of the room to be sure that there was nothing here to disturb the process.

The small machine exploded outwards, a bright blue light emanating from the various fins. The bullet damage was quite evident in this state.

The dormant Light in the bones awakened, and the centuries of decay began to reverse. Bathed in a layer of energy, the plate and moss slid off the forming muscle and tissue. Blood and skin grew over the body, the restoration was almost complete.

The Ghost dipped into its own storage and used the small amount of glimmer it had in reserve for this exact moment. The metal and fabric were woven together over the forming body, covering it in a firm armored shell. The body rose in the air and convulsed as the Ghost attempted to bring the body back to life.

She gasped, air returning to her lungs for the first time in ages. Something was covering her face; it felt like it was smothering her. She clawed at it, trying to get it off, fingers found a clasp and she tore it loose. Quickly ripping the thing over her head off, she desperately took in more air. Her lungs burned, as if they had never been used.

What happened? Where was she? Why couldn't she  _remember_  anything?

She looked up, there was a small  _thing_  hovering before her. Its central 'eye' stared at her, and it spoke. "Welcome back, Guardian. You probably have a lot of questions... questions I do not have answers for."

She attempted to take a step back, but stumbled and fell onto her rear. "What..?"

"Don't freak out... Don't freak out... easy. You have been dead... for a very long time. Let's just take it slow. I am a Ghost, I brought you back."

She looked up at the machine. Its eye blinked at her in anticipation. Nothing made any sense right now. Her hands found the grip of a sidearm in the moss, and pulled it free. The weapon was dirty and coated in a green substance, but the small lights lit up on the side as her palm pressed against it. "Stay back- whatever you are!"

"Don't! I am your Ghost. I am here to help," the machine said. "Just relax; we are safe where we are for the moment."

She lowered the gun. "...Where are we? Who am I?"

"Well, for starters, we're in the ruins of Seattle, a city that was once part of the American Empire during the Golden Age. As for who you are..." The Ghost moved, some sort of light was projected from its eye, scanning the area. "This might help."

She inched forward and picked the heavy metal plate from the ground. Her eyes looked it over, stopping once on the hole through the middle of it. Hanging off to the side was a faded piece of plastic, attached to a clasp built into the plate. It was an identification badge, it was very difficult to read. She pulled it off and held it up to her face to get a better look, dropping the plate back to the ground.

"This plate was over your body. If there is any relevant information, it pertains to you and you only." Her Ghost said, moving behind her to shine its light on the card.

The ID card was barely legible, but with the Ghost's help, she was able to see her first name.

_Nicole._

The name brought no surge of memory, nothing that gave any hint to her past. Just a slight feeling of familiarity. The rest of the text on the card seemed to indicate that she use to be a security contractor for something called Umic Industrial. Still nothing.

"Well,  _Nicole,_ looking at that card won't help, sorry. Your memories are lost when you've been dead for centuries." The Ghost blinked at her.

With a sigh, she slipped the card into her back pocket. "Well... Ghost... what do I do now?"

The Ghost clicked. "First of all, you should put your helmet back on. Then we can work on getting out of these tunnels."

Nicole reached down and picked her discarded helmet from the ground. As she slipped it on, status indicators and readings flashed across her visor. She looked down at her sidearm in her right hand and an ammunition counter appeared the side.

"You do know how to use that, right?" Her Ghost asked.

"I think so..." Nicole snatched an ancient piece of stone off the floor and tossed it into the air. Raising her arm, she pulled the trigger six times. All six bullets connected with the chunk of concrete, knocking it further away before splashing into the water. "I guess I do."

"Good work, Guardian." The Ghost said. "Now let's go." A small navigation marker appeared on a door nearby.

Nicole placed her pistol onto her thigh and the magnets on the armor took hold. The marker led to a maintenance door, the door itself had fallen away long ago allowing her access. The passageway beyond was mostly clear, aside from a few pipes which had collapsed with part of the wall. Lights flickered and illuminated the path.

"So what happened?" She asked.

"I do not know much, I was not created until after it happened. And most of what I learned..." The Ghost turned to her and wiggled one of its fins, showing damage from some kind of energy ballistic weapon. Her mind had provided that answer on its own, but she was unsure of how she had reached it. The fin was mangled and part of his core was dented. "...was deleted, by bullets." He spun around again. "All I know now is that; long ago, something attacked and destroyed humanity. Ghosts like me go around and bring people back from the dead to protect what is left of the human race from the aliens that remained."

Nicole immediately pulled her sidearm back up from her side. "Is there anything here I need to be worried about?"

"Well this is Fallen territory. They're alien scavengers, though they seem to stay on the surface in this area. We should be fine as long as we stay in the tunnels for now."

"Okay..." Nicole kept the gun at the ready, just in case.

"These tunnels should lead us out of the city. Hopefully there is a jumpship at the old airport." The Ghost went on, something about getting somewhere called the Last City. Nicole had sort of stopped paying attention, she needed to focus on where she was stepping; some of the ground had collapsed into something below, and the Ghost's light was little more than a flashlight. The maintenance passage dropped her out at a stairwell that led up to an unflooded tunnel. A train car had slid from its position on the maglev track, blocking her path.

Thankfully, the windscreen gave way to a couple of bullets. She crawled through the glass and walked through the subway car. This ruined world she inhabited now was probably nothing compared to the place she was from. As Nicole walked passed what looked like a broken screen, an advertisement flashed on.

"Ghost... how long ago did the world come to an end again?" Nicole asked.

The Ghost clicked again. "I am not sure exactly, but it was many centuries ago."

"We sure made things to last..." She muttered.

"Oh yes, indeed. Many Golden Age systems are still functional. In fact they seemed to have developed an infinite light bulb!"

"Huh..." Nicole shrugged and continued through the car. The tunnel beyond was collapsed, and the afternoon sunlight streamed in. "Up to the surface then?"

"I suppose, though be careful. I am detecting lots of movement." The Ghost noted. She nodded and started to scale the pile of rubble. Using the overgrown debris to her advantage; Nicole climbed out of the subway tunnel and took two steps out onto the surface, when she froze.

Her Ghost beeped. "Oh no," and then vanished in a puff of light and particles.

Nicole was surrounded by four armed creatures. Their eyes glowed as they all turned to face the newcomer in the middle of what looked like a market. As the creatures realized what she was, they suddenly panicked and fled for cover. She had no idea what just happened. Glancing around, there were gun barrels pointed at her, but nothing fired. "What..."

A small icon appeared on her visor.  _"That was the Fallen... I have never seen them react this way..."_ Her Ghost came through her helmet's internal speakers.

She held still, completely unsure of what to do. The other creatures, the Fallen, must have sensed her hesitation. One by one, heads with four glowing eyes began to appear from behind crates or the small market stalls. There was a hushed conversation somewhere, she was not sure. Nicole readjusted her grip on her sidearm, but kept it pointed low. She did not have the ammunition to fight this out.

Suddenly one of them started yelling. Nicole turned to see a large Fallen pick a smaller one up and toss it into the open area she stood in. She raised her sidearm a bit more, but still not aiming it directly at the armored creature.

Her eyes studied the Fallen before her; there was no way that was their real name for themselves. The creature's top arms were fumbling together, like it was figuring out what to say. However, it was its lower arms she needed to be worried about; they were fidgeting over the grip of a weapon of its own, still attached to its hip.

_"We should get out of here, fast."_  The Ghost whispered through her helmet.

"Well, if these are acting different to how you know, then maybe we should find out why, hmm?" Nicole said. She was not sure if her voice carried outside of her helmet, but the Fallen did not react.

_"No, the records are very clear on Fallen."_

"Shush, let's just give it a try. We don't really have any other options," she told the Ghost.

_"Running, there is always running."_

Nicole looked down at her sidearm, and then reattached it to her thigh. She moved her hands away, keeping them in the air a bit. The Fallen moved its lower hands away from its gun as well. "Guardian will not kill?" Its voice was strange, like there was another layer to its vocal chords. Honestly, Nicole was just surprised that it spoke English.

"...I will not." She was serious about giving them a chance. "Unless I am given a reason to."

The Fallen chittered to itself, in its own language for a moment. "What does Guardian want?"

Nicole spoke privately to her Ghost. "Is there anything specific?"

_"No, this situation is very unusual. This is your show now,"_ he said.

"Well, alright. She looked back to the creature. "I do not know much, I am just looking for a place to stay."

_"Really?"_ The small icon flashed on, then off again.

The Fallen turned to face the larger one that had thrown him out there. "I will inform my Captain of your wishes." Nicole nodded and the Fallen went to address the others in their language.

"Any idea if he's actually telling them the right stuff?" She asked her Ghost.

_"No, I do not possess an understanding of the Fallen language."_

"Okay then, going in blind." Nicole shifted.

The Fallen began to gather and the larger one came from behind a crate. They were having a discussion, which direction it was going, Nicole could not tell. The first one she had met turned back to her. "The Captain says that the decision is up to the Kell. Follow." He turned and led a path through the others; they parted ways, talking to one another with hushed tones.

_"Go ahead,"_ the Ghost said.  _"You don't want to offend them."_ It was almost sarcastic.

Nicole followed the small Fallen, while the one he called a Captain fell in behind her. She was taken through the market and out to a street. Well, it was a street at one time. The asphalt had long given way to flowing water and trees had sprouted through cracks. Thy passed through a building that had been gutted, all that was left were the four walls and the elevator shaft down the middle.

The next structure was rather short compared to the ruins around it. A sign was barely legible on the side;  _roya Hall._ There were long tarps and various kinds of alien machinery scattered about, and some hanging from the building.

The small one stopped at the door, two more of the same armored Fallen barred their entry. He turned to her, one hand outstretched. "They will not let you enter with your weapon. If you wish to continue, please give."

_"There is still time to run."_ The Ghost piped up.

Nicole smirked from behind her visor, and handed the Fallen her side arm. "Best to start out with some trust."

The Fallen placed her pistol into the hands of one of the other two and they walked inside, pushing through the fabric acting as a door. Sunlight streamed through the windows of the ancient structure. There was more Fallen machinery and miscellaneous decorative pieces in seemingly random areas inside. She was walked inside the concert hall, though the old theater looked more like a throne room.

Sitting in the throne on the stage was a huge Fallen. If she thought the Captain was big, this one blew that out of the water. It was easily three times as large. Black and white banners hung from the ceiling around what she assumed was the Kell.

Upon her entry, and subsequent arrival to the base of the stage, all the fallen in the room began to converse. Arms were waved and gestures made in her direction. The small Fallen seemed to be talking on her points, unless the higher ranks were for her and he was against. The Kell waved his hands and all went silent. He seemed to address her directly in their language, and the small Fallen relayed the question in English. "The Kell wishes to know why you want to stay among the House of Mist."

"Well... I am a new Guardian, I do not know much. In fact, I was brought back less than four hours ago." Nicole talked and the Fallen relayed it in part. "I do not have anywhere to go, and you seem to be more reasonable than my Ghost implied. I am interested in why."


	4. Decisions and New Places

**  
** **Kell's Throne Room, Downtown ruins, Seattle  
** **+0 Days [+5 hours]**  


* * *

More Fallen had arrived over the course of the next half hour, filling the throne room. There were quite a few of the taller ones kneeling below the Kell's platform. The one that could speak her language, he had finally introduced himself as Rykis, had told her that they were the Kell's Barons. They controlled the largest of the outposts across the region. Rykis pointed out the one they called an Archon, he was bigger than the Barons, but just short of the Kell. Apparently, next to the Kell, he was the most important Fallen in the House. However Rykis lacked the English words to explain why.

Rykis had been pulled into the debate early on, so Nicole was completely in the dark; though she could diffidently see that things were becoming heated. Two of the Barons had pointed at her and spoke in aggressive tones. Even if the Fallen language seemed very harsh to begin with. They spoke with anger.

She could recognize some bits of honor in the way they acted though. Whenever the Kell spoke, all would be silent until he ceased. The Kell's hands spread as if to calm the Baron's arguments. He said something to her, to which Rykis returned to translate it.

"Guardian, what can you bring to the House, that we do not already have?" Rykis said.

Nicole thought; what did she have? The skills that had been granted by the light were unknown to her, and she was not aware of what the House of Mist had in its arsenal. "Well, what do you think, Ghost?" She asked privately inside her helmet.

The small icon appeared in the upper left corner _. "Well, I told you that this was not a good idea,"_  he replied.  _"You probably want to sell it..."_ The icon vanished and the Ghost appeared in a flash of light.

The Fallen chittered at the appearance of the small machine, and its lightshow. Her Ghost turned back to her and nudged its intact fins at her, as if to edge her on. "What?" she whispered.

" _Sell it."_  The Ghost came through her speakers, best if they did not want Rykis translating everything they were saying.  _"You saw how they reacted when you emerged from the tunnel."_

Nicole nodded slowly, now understanding what he was saying. "I bring myself; a Guardian, to the service of the House of Mist."

Rykis translated that over to the other fallen, and that set off another fierce round of debating amongst the Barons. However, the Kell just sat back into his chair. Nicole swore she thought she heard a laugh from behind his mask.

"Think we sold it?" She asked the Ghost.

" _Well let's hope we did. I don't want to know what they'll do if you're not accepted."_  He said.

"Hoping for it? I thought you were totally against this?"

" _Guardian, you are in a room with so many Fallen, and with a Kell at that. I have met many other Guardians who never have the skills to face one of them,"_ her Ghost replied.

"Oh... Shit." Perhaps she should have insisted on bringing her sidearm in. Not that it would have been much use against this many Fallen. "I see your point."

Again, she sat back against a collapsed pillar and watched the debate continue. A holographic map was projected by the Archon, displaying the area. The ruins of Seattle were overlaid in a grey color, as were some of the surrounding cities. Some spots were red, with an upside down trident like symbol in the middle. Nicole was not sure if they were even discussing her anymore. Perhaps their arguments had spiraled to another set of plans.

She leaned over to Rykis, who was still standing beside her. "What are they talking about?"

Rykis jumped a bit, obviously not expecting her to say something to him at the moment. He turned to answer her question once he had recomposed himself. "They are discussing the idea that we can use you in the fight with the House of Devils. Our Houses do not get along. Archon thinks that you can scare them away."

Nicole nodded slowly. "I see..." Her Ghost was right though, she was not that experienced in fighting these creatures yet.

Finally, after what felt like hours of leaning against the pillar, it seemed like the Fallen had finally come to an agreement. Rykis, who had eventually resorted to sitting on the floor, stood up and gestured Nicole to follow him to the Kell. Nicole complied, slowly. She was not completely trusting anymore, which had been a bad decision in the first place. The  _alien-ness_  of the Fallen had finally sunk in. Rykis knelt before the Kell, so Nicole followed his example.

The Kell spoke, and Rykis translated. "Guardian, after much quarrel, I have decided to accept you into the House of Mist. You will take the rate of Dreg until you're allegiance is guaranteed..." They both paused for a second and the Kell looked down at Rykis specifically. "Until you learn our language and ways, Vandal Rykis is expected to be with you at all times. Is this understood?"

Rykis looked up at the Kell, and then back to Nicole. It was impossible to read his face as an alien, and the mask over the bottom half of his face didn't help either.

"I understand," Nicole nodded her head, hoping that this was appropriate behavior.

Rykis was addressed directly by the Kell, so he did not bother translating it for the Guardian.  _"Vandal Rykis, take the Guardian to the ruined city across the lake. She will be given space in a suitable building. Is that acceptable to you, Baron Acskis?"_

The Baron that held control of that area of ruins was one of the now outspoken members of the House who had called for killing the Human female. He was not pleased, but it was not his place to question the Kell.  _"Yes... I will also send it along with our next patrol near House Devils..."_

" _After she has some time to settle in and receive some instruction, Baron,"_ the Kell advised.  _"Give her two days."_

" _It will be done, my Kell."_ The Baron nodded and turned to exit the throne room, not with intently giving Rykis a kick as he passed by.

Nicole didn't know what was just said; just that one of the tall Fallen kicked her translator, Rykis. It was a strange scene watching the aliens leaving the throne room; some went as far as to jump out through damaged holes in the walls. Rykis recovered from the kick and bowed once more to the Kell, before guiding her out of the cavernous space.

"Kell has granted you a place to stay for now, Guardian." Rykis said.

"Oh, that's good." Nicole said, passing through the original doorway. She had not expected that, finding somewhere to live had been at the end of her list of things to do.

"Yes, however it is across the lake. It will be a few hours until we arrive on foot." Rykis chittered, fidgeting with his lower arms.

"Okay, give my thanks to the Kell when you see them again," she nodded.

Rykis took her up one of the main roads; the older buildings that flanked the path were over built by newer, more 'futuristic' expansions. However, both styles were equally overgrown by pine trees, ferns and moss; a lot of moss. At ground level, the remained of the city streets were almost unrecognizable below a layer of dirt and debris where plant life had turned them into natural looking forests.

Nicole did not know how she knew was natural forests looked like. The associated memories were without context, no people or animals, just empty mountain sides with trees and ferns as far as she could envision. What did she even look like? What if she looked like the Fallen, she had not seen herself yet; there had not been any decently reflective faces, nor had Nicole been really paying attention to that sort of thing. What did a  _Human_ look like?

"Wait-" Nicole called, "There's something I need to see... Ghost, can you take me back to where you revived me?"

Her Ghost appeared in front of her in a flash of blue light. "Yes, I can. Are you talking about right now?"

"Yes, take me there now... please." Nicole looked back to Rykis to see if he was okay with it. He did not seem to protest at all, so she followed her Ghost back down the hillside, towards the market area.

Rykis kept close on her tail, as her Ghost darted quickly around corners and through the various  _things_  that were hidden beneath moss and ferns. Any other Fallen in their path swiftly got out of the way of the running duo. They came up across the hole into the metro tunnel she had emerged from earlier in the day.

"Guardian, wait!" Rykis called, however Nicole had already dropped into the dark. The Fallen looked around and took a portable light with him before following her into the tunnels.

The collapsed and flooded tunnels made rapid maneuvering difficult; she slid down the crashed train car and into the maintenance passageway following her previous footsteps. The soft ticking in the distance behind her was Rykis trying to keep up. The internal clock on her helmet ticked away during the journey, almost three hours passing by in the dimly lit corridor.

" _Approaching the site, twenty meters ahead,"_ her Ghost finally noted.

She stepped into the ancient metro station, its arched ceiling had collapsed in for than a few places; however only one or two allowed the dimming sunlight to stream inside. Nicole looked over the railing and down to the murky water that hid the lower platform from view. There had to be centuries worth of rainwater and runoff down there. A barely functioning reader board just repeated a single word;  _Shoreline_. The space fed no flashbacks of memory, there was just a disconnected familiarity with everything.  _"I guess the Ghost was right... no memories are coming back,"_ she thought to herself.

Her Ghost was hovering over an area of disturbed soil and upturned plants. "This is where I found you."

Nicole knelt down and looked upon her grave. Still no memories; she sighed. The flak plate she had taken her badge from earlier in the day had shoved some of the dirt off of another item. She pulled the exposed piece out and found that it was a rifle, covered in moss. Nicole brushed the plant life off of the matte tan plastic, which felt very brittle under her fingers. Once again, it felt familiar, but nothing beyond that.

Suddenly, it vanished from her hands; dissolving into bright blue particles which faded away. "Hey! What the fuck!?" she looked down at her empty gloves, completely dumbfounded.

The Ghost lazily floated in front of her. "Sorry, that was me. Just a moment..." His fins twirled around the core and small sparks of blue leapt from the damaged stabilizer. And then, as soon as it had gone; the weapon reappeared in the air before her. The dirt and rust had been cleaned away. The plastic had been restored and the barrel was polished black. "The wonders of Glimmer," The Ghost said, "It should be just fine now."

She took the weapon from the air and ran her fingers over the small engravings that were now visible on its surface.  _Umic Industrial_ was clearly etched into the handguard over the barrel, the same company that was on her security badge. A larger ammo counter appeared over the small one for her sidearm on her Heads Up Display; the weapon had a full magazine, but apparently nothing in reserve.

"Wow... good work," Nicole congratulated her Ghost. "But where do I get more ammo for it?"

"I can generate ammunition for you if you have an ammunition synthesizer, that takes regular Glimmer, or I could use some of the ammunition cartridges that Fallen use." The Ghost turned to Rykis, who had finally caught up with them. "Do  _you_  have any spare ammunition for her?"

Firstly, Rykis looked exhausted, but then appeared more surprised that the Ghost would talk to him directly. He nodded slowly and reached into one of the pockets on his belt. He pulled it out and offered it to the Ghost, his lower arms fidgeting slightly. "Yesss... Ghost... But it is for  _our_  weapons, not Human."

"It will work, observe;" The Ghost emitted a light from its eye and the ammo cartridge disappeared from the Fallen's hands, causing Rykis to jump. The Ghost turned around and a magazine of bullets appeared in a pouch on Nicole's chest plate. "It's simple as that."

Rykis looked astonished at what he had just witnessed. Nicole laughed a little at the alien leaning over the Ghost with his hands up to his mask. She stood up and walked a few meters to the edge of the upper platform and squeezed the trigger. A single bullet leapt from the barrel and flawlessly struck the water surface, obliterating a lily pad.

"It works right. I think..." Nicole commented.

"I would hope so." Her Ghost replied with a bland monotone voice. "I fixed it."

Rykis approached her and lightly tapped her shoulder. "Guardian... I believe that we should be on our way before your star fully... sets."

"Fine... just give me a few more moments." Nicole nodded and walked across the platform, just taking in the space. She spied a surveillance camera hanging up on the ceiling. It was aiming towards the general direction of where she had died. "Ghost... there isn't any chance you could pull the data from wherever that was recorded, could you? Or has it been too long?"

Her Ghost hovered up to the camera and scanned it with its eye. "There is a chance, I am detecting some power still feeding the network; the server may still be salvageable, but it will not be here. The data would be stored at the offices that ran security for this system."

"I see... that's a mission for later then." Nicole spun around and walked back to Rykis, who had picked up her old ballistic helmet and was examining it in his hands. "I'm ready to go."

The Fallen gently set the helmet back down and stood. "Good... It is a good thing I collected some supplies before we departed..." He shifted his footing and looked like he was about to say something else, but held whatever he wanted to say. Instead the Fallen turned and started to walk towards the metro stations exit.

The stairs to the surface were covered in grasses and other plant life; everything had layers of grime and moss glowing on it. Rykis looked around and then pulled a device from one of his pockets. "That way," he pointed towards the mountains that were just barely visible in the twilight. "Our destination is on the other side of the large lake in this area."

"Then off we go..." Nicole pushed passed the taller alien and stated their trek across the valley.

Six hours later, the only good light they had to go off of was a lamp that Rykis had kept in his bag, and Nicole's Ghost. His eye thankfully doubled as a high powered flashlight; he stuck close to her shoulder. The low lying ruins were heavily overgrown, and the land had sunk back into marshland over the last few hundred years. Nicole wanted to explore these ruins, to see what is left of the civilization she lived in; unfortunately it was just unrelenting walking at the moment.

Nicole could see the outline of a city in the moonlight. There appeared to be some kind of artificial light sources in the buildings as well. That gave her hope, but it was probably more of the LED lightbulbs that burn forever. She glanced over at Rykis, who was holding a small sphere; a map of the area was displayed there were several pulsing dots behind them. It was hard to read his emotions, but his eyes seemed to convey worry. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"There should be a patrol sent to meet us," Rykis replied. "But they are not here yet."

"How do you know that?" Nicole questioned.

"We prepare for House Devils, lined the area with sensors, we tripped a few." He waved his lower hands across the holographic screen.

"Ah... okay, will they know it is us?"

"Probably not- They are expecting us to come from the bridges." Rykis shrugged. "But patrols do not shoot on sight; too many Humans have wandered through here."

Nicole found that last bit quite interesting, so perhaps she would run into another Human after all. They walked on and passed through a dimly lit intersection. The yellow light was blinking endlessly at its lowest setting. The air smelled off, a bit like ozone; she wasn't sure how she knew what that smelled like. Rykis stopped suddenly and knelt down, picking something out of a puddle Nicole turned and watched him turn the strange pistol over and aim towards a wall.

"This is one of our shock pistols, at a high charge... Something happened here." A faint clicking noise drew his attention to the distance. Immediately he ducked down and waved her towards a position behind a crumbling wall. "Devils, they are still here."

She slid into cover with the Fallen, and peeked out to the street beyond. "They likely saw us," Rykis continued. "Be ready." He pulled a rifle off of his back and readied it, the tip lit up with blue electricity with a subtle whine.

Nicole nodded and checked her weapon's magazine, even though her helmet displayed an accurate count; muscle memory from memories she no longer had. "Alright, good to go."

Her Ghost's icon appeared on screen.  _"I haven't got the resources to synthesize you a grenade, but if I do during this fight it will appear on your belt, on your left side."_

"Got it... Anything on the tracker?" She asked.

" _Nothing yet... wait-"_ The Ghost paused and a sliver of red appeared on the edge of the tracker.  _"Movement, just outside my range."_

Rykis looked over his cover. "That was one of the Devils." He stood up and opened fire at some target Nicole couldn't see. "Kill them, before they kill us."

She called upon some knowledge deep in her mind and leaded out around cover, brought the rifle to her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The rifle kicked and sent a burst of bullets towards a small fallen, missing its lower arms. Her Ghost tagged it as a Dreg, and the taller ones as Vandals. The wording seemed random but it was not the first thing on her mind. The Dregs fought strangely, one hand held a pistol and some kind of electrified blade in the other; they just charged head-on into the gunfire, leaping over cover and running right to their position. They were fanatical.

Slipping back into cover to reload, she saw that Rykis was marked as a Vandal as well on her Tactical system. Vandals were fighting smarter, using cover and only popping out to fire, yet they still seemed a bit amateur to her mind.

The Dregs went down easily enough; she was feeling the thrill in her chest, heart beating faster. She was getting cocky; they just ran straight into her bullets. It was exhilarating. Nicole stood from cover and started to fire randomly in the direction of the attacking Fallen; laughing maniacally.

However, in a building across the intersection, a Fallen Vandal charged his Wire rifle for the shot. All she saw next was a flash of light, felt a jab of pain, and then there was nothing.

It was not exactly nothing. She felt something, like a floaty feeling; but nothing around her, just mindless blackness. Then suddenly there was a shock to her system. Feeling returned to her consciousness and she sucked in a deep breath of air. Nicole opened her eyes to see Rykis and her Ghost looking down at her.

She sat up and rubbed her face, her helmet was missing. "Wh...What happened?" Nicole muttered.

Rykis answered first. "You dieded."

"What?" She died, how was she still here?

Her Ghost 'blinked' and twisted its fins. "Well to be more precise, you were shot by a Wire rifle and your head exploded."

"But... how am I still here?" Nicole stuttered.

"Oh... did... did I forget to tell you I could do that?" the Ghost said. "Yes, I can bring you back from the dead, as long as there is enough ambient Light around. I just waited for Rykis and the others to finish off the Devils before I felt it was safe to bring you back."

"Well, that's great and I'm glad you can. I fucked up." Nicole sat up against a section of dilapidated wall. "Wait, others?"

Rykis waved one of his arms towards another group of Fallen sifting through the Devils' bodies. "Some of the patrol survived; waited to ambush House Devils but they found us instead." He shook his head. "You must exercise some restraint while fighting Guardian."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will... This was just the first time in this life." Nicole finally pulled herself back to her feet. "Are we going then?"

"Yes, they will stay behind, but we can continue to the town." Rykis pushed passed one of the Patrol members and set them back on track to the city in the distance.

Their eventual arrival wasn't anything spectacular. It was the dead of night and hardly anything was happening. They passed the odd patrol, at which they only gave Rykis a nod before continuing on. It was quite obvious what additions the Fallen made to the old downtown sector, circular metal pods were sticking out of human structures and emanated light from a few window like openings. Nicole spied a few wood additions that definitely weren't original construction, so not everything the Fallen built was metal.

There was a large dome in the middle of what probably use to be a park. The forest that had regrown around it had been cut away a long time ago, but some of the stumps remained. The structure itself was painted white and black, and banners of the same color hung on poles and rungs. She had seen some of those while in Seattle too, it must be ceremonial or something. Rykis was taking her to that building.

"This is where Baron Acskis resides." Rykis said. "He will assign you a housing unit for your stay here."

"Didn't you say he was the one that didn't like me?" She asked.

"That is correct. However most likely he will assign you a place in one of the empty towers," Rykis said. "He would dare not oppose the Kell."

"If you say so, Rykis," Nicole shook her head. She grabbed the helmet from the clip on her hip and placed it back over her head.

Rykis walked her up to the entrance to the dome; it was sort of like the Kell's throne room, only the guard did not ask her to surrender her weapon. He and the other Vandal talked for a few moments, when another Fallen came from inside to collect them.

Her helmet labeled this Fallen as a Captain; however they were not wearing armor, instead they wore just their mask and a shirt that looked more like a piece of cloth draped across the body. They were slimmer than some of the other fallen of that size that she had seen earlier in the day, wider hips too. If Nicole had to guess... she was face to face, well face to about midsection, with a female of the Fallen species. The female spoke to Rykis, but he did not bother to translate.

They were led to a room somewhere along the edge of the dome, where they found the Baron sitting at a table with a large fish before him. His mask was off, hanging off to the side of his face. Another first, but Fallen faces were inherently strange to her, the two mandibles over an actual mouth. She did not know what her own face looked like, but it was not like that.

The Baron pulled the mask back over his face and clipped it on. He took a breath before speaking, to which Rykis translated for her. "So the Guardian made it. Perhaps you will be a valuable addition." He grumbled. "I have given you quarters in tower twenty seven. Your translator will be the only other occupant, understand?"

Nicole nodded; again Rykis handled the meat of the conversation.

"Good, I expect you to be out with a patrol by midday." He said. "Show me that you can be trusted with this House."

She nodded again, "I will... sir." Rykis probably made that sound much more regal for this setting.

Rykis once again translated the Barons words, seeming to remove the hostility from his tone of voice. "Then do that and leave my dwelling." Rykis looked back towards the way they came, "That means we should go now."

"Yes, I can sense that." Nicole followed him out they met another Fallen outside the dome.

"This is Vandal Jasix, she will show us to tower twenty seven." Rykis said. "I have worked with her before, she knows some of your language."

"Oh, that's good." Nicole said, looking up at Jasix.

"Yes, hello Guardian," Jasix said. Her tone was much more accepting than the Baron's. "Our Baron wishes that you be up early yes? Let us go quickly."

"By all means." Nicole motioned for her to lead the way.

Rykis stayed at Nicole's side while Jasix took them through the forested streets of this ruined city. It was not far, but there was more than a few blocks between the Baron's dome structure and the building that he had chosen to house her in. The building itself was small compared to the structures that made up the city's downtown core; it only appeared to be eight stories tall. The lower levels seemed unsuitable for her to live in, the trees and ivy coursing through the building; however, the upper four seemed fine to an extent.

"This is where you are to stay," Jasix said. "You are allowed any space in the building to call your own."

"Okay..." Nicole nodded, "I'll see what I can find in there..."

"Good luck, Guardian." Jasix returned Nicole's nod. "If you require..." She stopped and asked something to Rykis.

"Water." he replied in English, answering the question Jasix must have asked.

"If you require... water... then there is a vat for use at the resource depot. Buckets are available for your dwelling when it is needed."

"Oh, thank you." Nicole waved to the Vandal and walked over to the entrance to the building. It looked like it had been some sort of hotel at one time. The overgrowth only extended so far into the lobby, but there was not really anything of interest there. Her Ghost appeared and provided light for her as she passed through the arched doorway and up an old escalator. The second level looked to be mostly massive rooms filled with rotten furniture. The outer spaces were filled with plants and rubble, but the core of the building was mostly intact.

The third floor was obviously not for the guests, a large  _Employees Only_ sign was mounted on the door. The floor contained a massive kitchen and service corridor. There were trays and dishes that sat untouched on carts for centuries, but still nowhere for her to call home.

Nicole skipped the fourth floor and went straight into the fifth. The rooms were along the edge of the a balcony that looked down to the fourth floor; a pool that now looked more like an indoor swamp sat slightly overfilled in the center. She walked to a corner room and kicked open the door. The room was large, but everything was heavily water damaged. Nicole figured that all the rooms would be something close to this.

"Hmm... roomy; could use a bit of work though," her Ghost wondered aloud.

"Well it'll do... for now." Nicole poked the small ball.

Rykis knocked once on the door from the hallway. "If this is what Guardian wants... I will set up on the floor below."

"Okay that works. I'll uh be here until morning." She said.

He nodded once, and turned to leave. "Farewell."

Nicole shut the door behind him and then flopped against it, sliding to the floor. She took off her helmet and looked up to the Ghost, cracking a nervous smile. "So how'd I do?"

"Well I think you're going to do just fine." He replied.

"Oh Ghost... am I even going to be able to do this?" She asked. "Like live here and survive this world?"

"Of course you will. You're a Guardian, and Guardians can do anything."


	5. Armored Patrol

**Floor 5, Tower 27 [Formerly known as Evergreen Point Resort and Spa], North Medina  
** **+1 Day**

* * *

Nicole awoke in the old hotel room to her Ghost tapping her visor. She had slept in her armor since there was no way she would sleep on this mattress until she had cleaned it. Taking a glance at her mission clock, she noted that she had only slept five hours; not much but enough she hoped.

“Wake up, Guardian. It’s almost midday, and that Fallen is waiting outside the door.” Her Ghost nudged her visor again.

“Alright, I’m up,” Nicole yawned and sat up. The armor was not the most comfortable thing to sleep in; she lifted her arms into the air and stretched with a yawn. Popping off her helmet, she ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her forehead. Her eyes were covered suddenly with dark brown almost black hair; Nicole brushed them out of the way and then glanced down at her helmet. The visor reflected her face back at her. “Oh... so that’s what a Human looks like.” She blinked, and her green eyes blinked back.

“Well... yes.” Her Ghost blinked. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine...” She placed her helmet back on and grabbed her rifle from the wall. “Let’s get out there then.”

Nicole pulled open the door and walked out to the corridor beyond the room. Rykis was sitting on the ledge with what looked like a notebook; he was sketching something in the atrium. There was something familiar feeling about his act of sketching; perhaps she had done some in her past life.

He must have heard her open the door; he packed up his sketchpad and stood up from the ledge. “Good morning Guardian. The patrol is assembling on the old highway; a runner came by less than an hour ago.” Rykis nodded towards the stairwell. “We should be going.”

“Yep, that’s why I’m up; lead the way.” Nicole started down the stairs.

“Of course, Human,” Rykis nodded and followed her down. Once they reached the roadway the Vandal took the lead, drawing her through the overgrown streets once again.

The ruins were different during the day; the faded color of the building behind the green moss was a beautiful combination. The old asphalt was buried beneath layers of soil, and then covered in a thick layer of ferns, and grass where the sun shone commonly. There were ruts in the dirt, like something was still using the roads. It was a surreal feeling, like this was all wrong, but she knew no other image of the world around her.

Further into the city, she saw smaller Fallen playing in the streets, with others watching from the windows in the buildings; women and children she guessed. Rykis took her away from the occupied areas, opting for the less busy alleys and roads.

They came to a wide open area, sunken beneath the rest of the land around it. Large portions of grey concrete were still exposed, peeking through the grass and plants. This was a highway, or use to be one. Rykis stopped and pointed down at an onramp that passed through a tunnel. “That way is where we’re meeting them.”

“Well alright,” Nicole hopped down over the side of a crumbling embankment, taking the lead again. The asphalt here was long buried, and a small stream flowed down the gulley. A flock of birds took off from inside the old tunnel’s supports. She walked through the tunnel at the end, but before she could reach the exit, a coughing, puttering sound wafted from down the tunnel, before a sharp, whistling whine sounded alongside it, spooling up. As she neared the exit, a deep rumble echoed down the passage, and vibrated in her chest. She recognized that it was not a natural rumble, but nothing was coming to mind.

She quickened her pace out of curiosity and was met with an unexpected sight. It was a large, rather boxy tracked vehicle, with a large, thick barreled cannon spouting from an angled metal box. The word popped into her head;  _Tank_. It rumbled and roared with a whistling whine as a burst of black exhaust emerged from back end. Its tracks began to turn and it moved forward ahead of another trio of smaller vehicles. They hovered and matched the Fallen design she had seen during her time so far in this place. But that Tank... it was undeniably  _Human._

Plates of tan metal were welded to the side, adding additional armor or maybe patching holes. She glanced back “What... is that?”

Rykis walked up beside her and nodded to the vehicle “Ah, that. It is one of your kind’s ancient vehicles of war... the engineering group fixed...” He looked down at his hands, counting out on all four of them, and then holding up all but one finger. “...Eleven before I was born.”

“You got those to run?” Nicole asked again. “Does the gun work?”

“Yes, however the ammunition is scarce, we use them mainly at sentry posts... this must be because of the ambush last night,” Rykis said. “Baron Acskis must feel that this patrol needs the boost... hmmm, not a good sign.”

The tank came to a stop and a Vandal carried a large belt fed gun up to the top, attaching it to the roof. Smaller Fallen emerged from inside the vehicle and collected large cannon shells as long as her leg, and attached a hose from a barrel to a port on the tank.

“I still can’t get past the fact that they managed to fix this up.” Nicole avoided stepping across the hose, and went around the barrel. “I have no memory of these things but I’m impressed.”

Her Ghost appeared between her and Rykis. “As am I, it looks in good repair, despite its age.”

“I would not know.” Rykis replied. “That is done by Baroness Tansis’ crew, in the south.”

“They must be skilled.” The Ghost said.

“Indeed, they are responsible for most of the maintenance and new machinery here. But enough of that... they are almost finished fueling and our Captain has arrived.” Rykis pointed to one of the tall Fallen approaching from up the road. “He will be in our Skiff support.”

The larger Fallen walked over to the assembled patrol group. The other Fallen stopped what they were doing when he made a grunt. The Captain pointed to the crew on the tank and said something before moving his attention to the riders of smaller bike like vehicles.

She really liked the look of them for some reason, they looked sleek and cool. Maybe she would try to get one someday.

Nicole shook her head and looked to Rykis, who was happy to fill her in with what the Captain was saying. “He is telling them what route to take, ‘follow this four-oh-five and then onto road ninety.’ We’re apparently heading into the mountains for an overnight patrol.”

Glancing up at a faded highway sign, Nicole noted that the road names corresponded to the way they had been numbered in the past. “So you’re going off the old names for them?” She asked.

“It is convenient. All those signs your people placed make navigation simple.” Rykis waved his upper right arm at the very sign Nicole was referencing earlier.

“Hmmm... makes sense I guess,” she responded as the Captain continued to issue orders for the bike riders.

Rykis explained that the bikes, which they called ‘Pikes’, were to scout ahead of the tank, to warn of any Devil ambushes. The leader of the Pikes chittered back to the Captain in affirmative, before turning to its own. With a few words that Rykis didn’t bother to translate, the riders mounted their vehicles Rykis nodded to the Tank, as a Vandal wheeled away the bundle of empty fuel barrels that had been emptied into the tank, and the heavy vehicle’s crew buttoned up hatches and got into position. With another grunt from the Vandal on top of the Tank, the others of the patrol climbed aboard, mostly atop its turret, as they settled in for the long ride to the mountains.

He climbed up the Tank’s rear, and held out one of his gloved hands to Nicole. “We ride,” he explained, as she took his hand and climbed onto the massive metal vehicle. The tank’s huge motor rumbled loudly beneath them, roaring and whistling sharply as it lurched and the heavy tracks clanking as they set off on the patrol.

The engine was too loud to speak to Rykis about anything while the Tank made its steady progress. They had only been on the road for a couple minutes when they came across the interchange with Highway 90. Many of the bridges for the junction were damaged and crumbling, but there was a ramp down to the other road that was intact.

The tank rumbled down the ruined highway, all around them were the rusting bodies of vehicles. Most were facing the same direction, as if they were fleeing some disaster happening in the cities. By all means, they probably had been;  _something_  wiped out humanity oh so long ago. Nicole glanced at the Fallen that surrounded her; this species seemed completely incapable of being the cause of that scale of destruction. It had to have been something else instead, something that was no longer around.

This portion of highway jutted east, directly away from the cities and water. It was not long before they had left the urban decay and ended up deep in the miles of rotting suburban neighborhoods. Though the only hint Nicole could see that there had been anything there was the occasional house sticking out from the trees. Nature had almost completely reclaimed the land.

However, there were only so many trees she could watch, the Fallen around her had been talking in their native tongue the entire trip. The hard metal was not kind to her rear either. She shifted her seating and got on to her knees. The armor her Ghost had created had come with knee pads built in, to which she was thankful for. “So Rykis...” Nicole thought for a second, she hoped she had pronounced his name right.

He looked up from some sort of book he was looking through and closed it. “Yes, Guardian?”

“Well first of all, call me Nicole please. I don’t really associate with Guardian yet.” She shrugged; it was true however, at least  _Nicole_  seemed right to be her actual name.

“Very well, Neh-cole.” Rykis nodded and smiled under his mask, at least she thought he did. His cheek bones moved in a fashion her human mind interpreted as one.

“So what kind of patrol just goes in a straight line?” she asked.

“Ah not really, the Pikes are quite a bit faster than the Tank. They are the one patrolling in a grid pattern around our position, traveling well beyond our sight range. We are just their support in case they make contact with the Devils,” he replied.

Nicole glanced back to him, “If they’re so much faster, what happens if the patrol gets hit far away?”

“The Skiff holds a small first response group. They will go while we make our way there for immediate support.”

“Oh,” Nicole nodded. “That’s a really good system.”

“Yes, we’re not a stupid people.” Rykis laughed, though it sounded like a low key chittering.

“That’s not what I meant by that,” Nicole clarified. The last thing she wanted to do was offend the one Alien that spoke her language.  

Rykis laughed again, “Yes, I know.”

Nicole just smirked. “Okay, another question then; how come you can speak my language so well?”

“Oh that one is simple,” Rykis said. “I am an interpreter at the trading post, someone with an in depth knowledge of your language is needed nearby, though it has been quite a while since I have seen humans personally.”

“Ah, so how’d you learn?” Thankfully this worked to speed up the passage of time marginally, but a little was better than not at all.

“I was taught by the Archon, though I am not sure where he learned English though...” Rykis scratched his head. He looked like he was going to continue, but then he set his hands back down to his lap.

“Well... that’s... cool,” That draw off was a bit awkward, Nicole was not sure why Rykis did that, but she decided to drop the conversation. “That’s all for now, I guess, got to get to know the person I’m going to be spending the most time with.”

“Indeed,” Rykis agreed. He went quiet again for a bit, and then began a conversation with another Vandal across the tank. She shrugged and went back to watching the scenery pass.

As the mountains rose around them, the air quickly cooled and snow covered the world. It muted everything; even the rumbling engine beneath her seemed to be quieter. The view evoked another flash of disconnected scenes in her head; mighty mountains and frozen rivers, snow and ice with miles of white trees all around them. It was sort of like where she was now, just a little different. She knew snow was supposed to be peaceful for some reason, no clue why.

The sun was disappearing beyond the distant horizon when Rykis poked her shoulder. “Is it true that the risen do not have any memories of their past?”

“Ah... yes that appears to be true...” Nicole said.

“So asking questions about yours is useless, right?” Rykis replied.

“That’s right; I’m a mystery even to myself. I’m still learning my tastes.” That last word kicked up a feeling in her stomach, it growled rather loudly; however it was still quieter than the tank. “Speaking of tastes... do you have any food? I haven’t eaten in... Well, ever I guess,” she laughed.

Rykis nodded and looked into one of his pouches. “Yes, I brought some along for patrol. I was not sure if you Guardians had to eat but I brought extra for you.” He pulled out a small package and handed it over to her. “Fish... and I have some dipping if you would like.”

Nicole took the package and unwrapped it ravenously. The fish inside was pink, with a bit of darkened grill marks across the top. She held it up to her mouth and took a bite. The taste triggered images again, flashes of water and sand and the very definition of the term fishy. “Huh... it’s Salmon.” She muttered, the wording coming to her.

The Eliksni looked over to her and nodded. “That’s right... I thought you said you do not have any memories?”

“That’s true, though certain things cause flashes of memory, though they’re usually devoid of any identifying features or human life. They seem to be just basic images of what things are... like forests and water, things like that.” Nicole elaborated. “It’s like just barely knowing what someone’s talking about when they say ocean... I think... I’m guessing since I don’t know how society works but then again I do know... does. Does that make sense?”

He nodded, the helmet on his head shifting slightly. “Yes, I think it does.” Rykis settled back into the tank’s netting as they continued the route into the mountains.

The highway took them into a steep valley, so much so that the Pikes had grouped back together and continued ahead on the only road that was out here. The route split around a gorge, in the dim evening light Nicole could see a frozen waterfall down below. A sudden flick of movement on the cliff side caught her eye; it climbed up the vertical rock face and disappeared into the forest. Whatever it had been was too far to properly identify, and she dismissed it as some sort of wild animal.

The trip had been rather calm, apart from the constant rumbling from the tank; however even that became a sort of background noise. Nicole glanced up at the craft flying overhead, Rykis had called it a Skiff and it blended in fairly well with the dull grey sky.

Nicole closed her eyes and flicked open the air vents on her helmet to let in some of the crisp cold air. But all of a sudden an explosion echoed off the rock, followed by rapid gunfire. She shot upwards and grabbed her rifle, but there was nothing coming towards the tank; the fighting was further up the highway... where the Pikes were.

Shouting came from the crew on the tank and the entire vehicle lurched forward as it began to gain speed. The engine whined and the tracks tore through the snow and ice, scoring the ancient pavement below.

As they roared around the corner of the gorge, Nicole saw that up ahead all lanes of the old interstate were blocked. The surviving Pike pilots were behind an overturned van, there were not many left. Their vehicles were flaming wrecks across the snow. The roadblock was occupied by the Devils; she could recognize their colors in the dark.  

The electricity based weapons zipped around, glowing brightly through the night. The Vandal on the Tank’s mounted gun opened fire, while the Fallen on the Tank rolled off the side; she followed their lead. They stacked up behind the vehicle for cover and it slowly began to roll towards the blockade.

Almost at once, Rykis and the other Vandals dashed out from cover and made for the trees along the side of the road, leaving her alone behind the vehicle. She glanced around and lost sight of them in the dark; then she spotted on of the other Vandals with his hands covering the sides of his head. “What the-”

The Tank suddenly lurched back, letting loose a deafening boom. Something attached to the back slammed into her helmet, knocking her to the ground. An explosion lit up the valley from the checkpoint, and a small fraction of incoming fire ceased.

Nicole was still recovering from the blast, and shook head in a pointless effort to clear the ringing. It took a few seconds, but she picked herself off the ground, and the ringing began to fade. Over the rumble from the Tank, she could hear her Ghost coming through her helmet speakers.  _“Guardian? ...guardian? Can you hear me?”_

“Ye-Yeah I can.” She replied, stumbling out and moving towards the snow covered guard rail. She fell and flopped over the side, hoping that this was going to provide adequate cover. “Fuck that hurt...” The swear came from the deep end of her mind, completely naturally.

 _“You will survive,”_  the Ghost replied.  _“I’m sorry; I apparently forgot to put in proper sound dampening when I created your helmet.”_

“Good going there,” She muttered.

 _“I will rectify this issue when you secure more glimmer for parts and repairs.”_  The Ghost said.  _“For now, I’d recommend that you move further away from this vehicle. There’s not enough space on this side of the road for you.”_

“Got it, just give me a minute,” she rolled out of the snow and back over the guardrail. Stumbling through the gunfire, she finally shook her head clear and made it into the trees.

There was a flash of light from the blockade and some machine  _walked_  over the barrier. It was metallic, and had multiple lights across its bulbous head. On its back was a large cannon, which twitched and shifted to aim at House Mist’s tank. On its chin, a rotary gun spun up and opened fire at the Pike survivors. Its main gun fired, though it was much quieter than the old Human tank.

The shot flew across the roadway and smacked into the side of the turret, detonating. The Tank rocked, but once the explosion cleared there was only a gouge in the side of the armor, no penetration.

Mist’s tank fired back with his main gun, letting out another deafening boom. The shell tore through the armor of the strange walking tank and detonated in its core. The alien tank blew apart in a massive fireball and stumbled towards the cliff. It almost looked like it was alive. One of the walker’s legs caught the guardrail and it careened over the side of the mountain.

The Mist Vandals in the trees began to open fire now that the largest threat had been dealt with. Nicole moved up the hillside, and found a clearing above the Devil’s position. She opened fire from her position, taking out one of the Devil’s Dregs. She could see that the gunfire from the blockade was focusing solely on the Tank. Nothing was even looking up at her.

 _“Guardian, I have movement right behind you. Something big!”_ The Ghost alerted her.

She twisted around and glanced up the cliff face behind her.  _“How could there be anything there.”_ She thought.

In the dim light given off by her helmet light, she could see the snow rising and falling off of something emerging from the ice. The red lights of another one of the spider tanks stared at her through the falling snow.

“Oh shit!”

The walker’s chin gun spun up and opened fire on her; the bullets launching all kinds of material into the air as they struck the ground. Nicole dove out of the way and rolled behind an outcropping of rocks, just in time.  The rock cracked and chips rained down upon her; she did not have any heavy weapons to deal with this thing.

“Ghost, do you have communications with any of the Fallen that are on our side?” she asked.

 _“No, I don’t... I can try though.”_ Her Ghost replied.  _“...I think these are Mist codes...”_

After a few fleeting moments, her helmet radio was suddenly lit up with a discord of Fallen voices. She was not sure what they were saying. Hopefully her Ghost did actually connect to the right one. “Uh, Rykis, They’ve got me pinned down with another one of those walking tanks on the mountainside.”

There were a few seconds of continued coordination she did not understand before Rykis came across the radio in her language.  _“I see it, will have Tank target it.”_

Nicole glanced back down at the Tank on the road. It was barely visible outside the spotlights the Devils had set up. There was no way that the Tank could aim this far up. She could see a hint of movement on top, but what it was, she was not sure. But then light flashed from the top. Bullets zinged above her head, peppering the Devil’s Walker across its head. The Walker shuddered as holes began to appear, something inside was giving off a bright red light.

 _“Neh-cole, we are leaving. Captain is dead, but the Pike riders have been rescued. Tank needs to save ammo and Archon is calling us back,”_ Rykis called out over the radio.  _“Return, fast.”_

Nicole peeked over the rock again; the Walker was still maneuvering in the snow, though its attention was directed down the slope. The main gun on its back charged and fired, but it seemed to miss. The gunfire continued to pepper the Walker’s hull.

“Okay, I understand.” Nicole replied to Rykis. She dove out from behind the now pummeled rock and made a mad dash for the tree line. The Walker’s turret swiveled to her and fired its coaxial weapon, some sort of slow moving electrical bolts. They followed her through the trees, tracking her down.

“What the fuck!?” One of the bolts struck a tree, and exploded. The tree was blown to splinters, which thankfully triggered the other two. Now that she was in the clear from the Walker, she made a beeline for the Mist Tank. When she emerged from the forest she could see that Rykis and the other Vandals were falling back around the bend, probably over a hundred meters away. Nicole had dropped out where the Pikes had been taken out.

Her exact position was behind an ancient landslide, so she was not under fire from the barricade. However, there was an intact Pike not too far from her position. “Can you tell if that thing is still working, Ghost?” she asked.

 _“I’ll check.”_  The Ghost flew out from behind her and dodged the smaller pieces of wreckage. The blue scanning light from his eye flashed across the Pike’s surface. One of the Devils on the wall must have noticed because a volley of gunfire came down range. Thankfully, the Ghost puttered back over to her position.  _“Yes, it’s in working order.”_

“Great, that’s our way out of here.”  Nicole reloaded her rifle, and inched closer to the edge of the landslide.

There was movement nearby, the indicator on her HUD showed four hostiles coming closer. They were probably coming down to check the area for any survivors. She shook her head and charged out around the corner. The Devils where far closer that she had realized, Nicole had nearly walked right into a Vandal. She quickly head-butted the Vandal, knocking it back a few steps and she followed up with a burst into its chest. Nicole reached down instinctively for a new magazine, but found something else instead; a knife. Twisting it around in her hand, Nicole brought the blade through the neck of a Dreg. A burst of wet gas sprayed from the wound and coated her helmet.

She kicked the Dreg into another and managed to grab an actual magazine from her belt. Nicole turned and ran for the Pike, picking it back up and climbing aboard. Thankfully, it was still running; she gripped one of the handlebars and the Pike shot forward. Gunfire shot past her as she attempted to ride back down the mountain pass. She looked back and fired at the Fallen with her rifle, just to force them off her trail.

For some reason, she found that driving the Pike just seemed to come naturally. The balance and steering was only slightly different to whatever mental skills she was using. Nicole understood that she would probably never know why it was this way, or why she was instantly competent with a weapon. But she was glad she did.  

The Devils appeared not to pursue her any further; she left them behind in the cold snow. Nicole tried to wipe the black droplets from her visor, but they just further smeared across and made it even harder to see. She opted to just remove the helmet all together, clipping it back onto her belt with a free hand. The crisp air and flecks of snow were directed away from her face by the Pikes small windshield, but the wind blew through her hair. It was a good feeling, a relaxing feeling. It triggered another vague memory, trees and blurry shapes flying past as her point of view swung over a road that wound along the edge of a gorge. There was not anything recognizable of it; just the feelings. The worry and fear of combat melted away into the sound of rushing wind.

She was safe again, free. This had to be something from her past life, a happy place. Her happy place.

Nicole rode on, finally coming across her allies from the House of Mist. The Tank was damaged, a bit of darker smoke belched from its exhaust and there were more than a few missing armor panels. Rykis stood from the back and waved to her, calling her closer to the vehicle as it lumbered down the roadway.

“You made it out! Good!” Rykis shouted to her.

Nicole brought the Pike a bit closer so that she could properly respond. “Yeah, but what was that? Those Devils have you boxed in here?”

Rykis shook his head. “Do not know, this is the first time we came across them there.” He looked around at the others. “Kell will have others check other passes. Has been years since a full sweep was done.”

“You doing okay?” She asked. If her interpreter died, she would be... as the word popped back into her head... fucked.

“Yes, I am fine. Are you going to remain on that Pike?”

Nicole nodded and gave its engine a bit more power. “Yeah, I do think I will. This is... calming.”

Rykis’ attention was drawn away to a wounded Vandal on the back of the Tank that had reached up to him. “Very well, keep close.”

She pulled away from the Tank and dodged a line of snow covered vehicles. It was like that all the way back down the highway; the Pike was fast, but the tank was not. Nicole was constantly shooting ahead and then slowing down for them to catch up. Driving the Pike became more and more like second nature the longer she rode, tapping into that forgotten memory. Not long after they left the snow, a Mist Skiff arrived to pick the wounded up and take them somewhere for treatment. The trip back to the old city was as uneventful as the trip up, just far darker.

Nicole followed the Tanks approach into the sunken portion of the highway and back to where they launched. A Vandal waved her over to a different area under the overpass with what looked to be a light stick. There were other Pikes parked with tarps draped over them all over; however there was more than a few open spots. The Vandal had her park in an open spot, she dismounted. He waved to her and said something she did not understand when she started to walk away.

Backing away, Nicole put up her hands. “Sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying.”

The Vandal growled and spoke in a rough accent. “Turn off.”

“Well I don’t know how to do that either,” she replied.

He grumbled again and reached over the handlebars and pressed a switch on the console. The Pike’s engine cycled to a stop. It lowered down and settled on some small studs that might have been some kind of landing gear. “Now know.”

Rykis came around the concrete pillar and called her over. “Baron Acskis wants to know what happened, we have been summoned.”

“Well okay then... you’ll have to lead the way; I still don’t know where places are here.” She replied.

Her Ghost appeared and spun around her head before facing Rykis. “I have footage from this Guardian’s helmet. It should help.”

“That might get us on Acskis’ good side,” Rykis replied. “He was not happy to be woken at this... hour...” With that, Rykis started off back up to the city with Nicole close behind.


	6. Adventuring

**NE 4th ST, South Bellevue Ruins  
** **+2 Days**

* * *

Nicole hurried across Bellevue with Rykis and the other Fallen that had survived the ambush. The Baron's den was completely across town from where they had stowed the vehicles. It was the final hour before dawn, and a few flurries of snow had blown in while they were gone.

There were not many other Fallen out and about like there had been that morning, aside from the occasional sentry on patrol. Their glowing eyes made spotting them fairly easy inside windows or on rooftops. Nicole's Ghost flew around her head and glanced out at the buildings.

"I still find it highly unusual that this House is active during the day... and not at night like many of the other Houses," he said quietly, blinking along with their walk.

Rykis looked over at the small machine and simply waved across the buildings. "While our night vision is very good, there are things to do here that can only be done when the sun is out," he nodded enthusiastically.

"Interesting." The Ghost flew around and orbited Rykis once before returning to Nicole's side. "I  _still_  do not entirely approve of this, Guardian. We should be on our way to the Last City."

"I don't think so, Ghost. I don't know if you've noticed... but I suck," Nicole said. "I think we should stay here as long as these Fallen will have me. At least until I have more experience."

The Ghost's fins angled down, seemingly to mimic an angry frown. "Fine, you make a good point."

The group of Fallen, plus one Guardian, walked across the city, towards the Baron's dome. When they arrived, the Baron's guards ushered them inside. Nicole followed along, but Rykis was not translating anything at the moment. She passed through the dining room she had met the Baron in before, and into a large chamber with a variety of screens.

The Baron himself was sitting in a large chair in the back of the room. "This guy probably has a throne in every room here," she whispered to her Ghost. Even if what she said was transmitted beyond her helmet, only Rykis would understand.

_"He does seem the type,"_  her Ghost replied.

The Fallen proceed to reiterate what happened upon the mountain, at least which is what Nicole thought they were doing; none of it was being translated for her. Up in his chair, the Baron looked distressed and sounded extremely frustrated whenever he spoke.

It was a full hour of testimony before Rykis nudged her. She had sort of zoned out again, watching a series of screens displaying maps of the area. There was not much of a purpose to listening to a bunch of gibberish she could not understand.

"Guardian, have your ghost display his recording." Rykis gestured to the main screen facing the Baron.

"Got it; Ghost, if you may?" Nicole held out her hand, summoning her companion.

The small machine appeared in her palm and glanced towards the slightly curved screen. "I will see if I can make a solid connection. I've never interfaced with a Fallen screen before." A small beam of energy shot from the Ghost's eye and connected to the screen.

It took a moment, but the screen flashed and the group was treated to a video of her sitting on the tank. It was taken over her shoulder, and she assumed it was taken by her Ghost's eye, however the past version of herself took the Ghost out, yet the camera remained in the same position.

"This is a bit early; I will jump to the point in question. I will also be able to rotate the view to focus on anything that happened around us," the Ghost said; Rykis translated that for the Baron, who simply waved a hand in acknowledgement.

The video jumped forward to the moments before the fighting started earlier that night. The Baron watched the combat through completely before instructing the Ghost to rewind and rectangle different shots. He halted the recording on a good shot of the blockade and ruined Pikes. The frozen image also held a downed Skiff; she had not noticed its burning wreckage when she was up there, but it explains why there was no aerial cover like she had been told.

Nicole leaned over to her while the Fallen continued to discuss amongst themselves. "So... how exactly did you manage to get this angle?" she whispered.

The Ghost dipped one wing and turned to look at her. "Space Magic."

"Rea-" She started and then was immediately interrupted.

"Yes. Really."

"Well that just seems like a cop-out, to be honest," Nicole replied, reaching out and giving the Ghost a light push with her finger.

"Some sort of nano-camera system along your helmet and armor." Her Ghost imitated a shrug with his fins. "Some just call it space magic, so I do to."

"Isn't it nice to explain things though?"

"Absolutely... not." His damaged fin sparked slightly.

Nicole shook her head and sighed. "You are no help."

Meanwhile it appeared that the Baron had finished deliberating with the other Fallen. Nicole noticed him nod and gesture for the others to leave, except for Rykis who stayed behind. The Baron waved a hand at Nicole and spoke.

Rykis resumed his second job, being her translator. "By all means this was a failure, but you are lucky I cannot place the blame on you. You survived, where my fellows did not; a feat I am not sure how I feel about... Unfortunately I am aware you are unable to die, but that is also fortunate for me..." Rykis glanced back at the Baron, seemingly stopping mid-sentence. The Baron barked, and nodded for Rykis to finish. "...that I can kill you without consequence."

"Wait, hold on-" Nicole raised her left arm while her right felt for the grip of her pistol. However she stopped mid pull. There was no way she could kill this creature with a peashooter like that. Plus, even trying would ruin her chances here. Instead she looked on, and flashed five fingers at her Ghost.

_"Five minutes? Got it,"_ the Ghost replied with what seemed like the quietest response over the radio she had ever heard.

The Baron's lower arms appeared with a handgun, and fired once. The bullet flashed through her helmet and through her forehead, once again banishing her to the darkness.

Time passed in the void and eventually she was brought back to the land of the living. She had been dumped in the snow outside the Baron's compound, so upon awakening she was quite cold. Rykis offered a hand to help her up as soon as he saw movement. "Apologies, Guardian... the Baron is not pleased with the events that have transpired."

"No shit." Nicole took Rykis' hand and he pulled her up. "At least that plan worked..."

She took off her helmet and checked the front. Where the bullet had passed through there was an obvious paint chip and dent, the Ghost had patched it fairly well. She rubbed her thumb across the spot, barely feeling anything through her gloves, and then plopped it back onto her head. "What next?"

"There is nothing more tonight," Rykis said. "We should return to your tower."

"Oh, well that's fine." Nicole turned and looked over the skyline. "Which direction is that?"

"It is on the other side of the city," Rykis nodded. "I will take you, but pay attention this time."

Across the snow dusted city the old hotel stood out among the smaller structures on the peninsula; it was the only one over three floors. The hotel itself appeared to be in better repair than the rest of the buildings. It might be an acceptable place after all.

Nicole walked up the stairs and found her room. She flopped back down onto the old be and decided to go back to sleep for a good bit, she was more tired than she thought.

The next few days went on and Nicole found herself slotting into a daily routine. Rykis was spending the morning hours teaching her their language, which was not easy in any aspect. Afterwards she would collect food and water from the depot in the city, and return for more language class. It was just as hard for him to teach her as it was for her to actually pronounce many of the needed vernacular; however she was slowly starting to get the basics down after a week.

Her ventures into the city became more than just water runs after the first week. There was so much out there that the Fallen had not yet claimed, or they did not use. By the second week, there had been an increase in patrols going out; none of which she was part of. There was a lot of force build up down by the old highway. Rykis had said he was not sure what it was for, it was just in response to the patrol she had been on.

Between the day's language lessons, Nicole sat in the corner of the room reading a semi-water damaged book she had found in one of the empty Hotel rooms. It was a tour guide for hikes out in the mountains; though of course all the trails would be long overgrown by now, it was more for her to understand what the area was like. A sudden gust of wind blew in through the window and disturbed the flaking paint. Chunks fluttered to the floor around her discarded armor plates, and she stopped reading to look around the dilapidated room. As the cogs of thought turned in her head, she set the book down and summoned her Ghost. "You know... I think I can fix this place up a bit."

"Finally! We're actually going to do something." He popped off her hand and flew around the room, his eye producing a blue light and he scanned the space. "The structural integrity is still stable, so it's all going to be cosmetic work."

"Good." Nicole tapped her chin with a finger. "So we need paint and some materials to fix the walls... and I could kill for something more comfortable than the cloth I've been sleeping on. Let's see if we can find some out there."

She pulled on her chest plate and clamped the pieces all together. Nicole pulled the plate away slightly from beneath. "Oof... It didn't feel this tight yesterday. It really... compresses... stuff, you know?"

Her Ghost turned around and blinked at her. "I apologize, the measurements may be wrong; they were the default set by the provider. Time without the plate has allowed your body to expand to your natural form. We should find materials to make some adjustments while we are out there."

Nicole clicked all the small miscellaneous armored plates into place, but then tapped the plate over her hip with a knuckle. "Okay, this stuff feels thin."

"I did not have much material to make the gear, it provides life support but that is pretty much it," her Ghost said. "You can get better gear in time, with materials I can rework and break down existing armor to help upgrade what you have, or restore older sets you find... if that's what you like."

"Another reason to get going." Nicole headed out the door of her room and dropped off the side of the balcony to the floor below. Rykis' room was across the floor, but he was not in the room. A written note, in english, was up on the door. Apparently Rykis had been called away by the House's Archon. He would not be around for an undetermined amount of time. "Oh that's just great, I don't have an interpreter."

"Are you still going out then?" the Ghost asked.

"Of course, I don't feel like being cooped up in here." She spun around and walked down the stairs

"Good," the Ghost quipped. "When I was searching for you, I passed a great deal of warehouses south of here. There might be untapped resources left there we could check out."

Nicole ducked to get out through the old lobby doors and into the cloudy weather. "Okay that's where we're headed. How far is that?"

"It is about twenty five kilometers." The Ghost projected a map of the area onto her helmet HUD with a path from her current location to somewhere south of them. "It's a six hour slow walk, two at a jogging pace, if you're up for it."

"Are we sticking to a clear path?" She asked, heading up the nearby onramp that led onto one of the many ancient highways. The concrete roads remained relatively passable with all the old rusted cars pushed to the sides, grass and other shrubbery had long penetrated through cracks though.

"Best route keeps us following this old highway." He replied. "They're not overgrown as much as the surface streets."

"Alright, just keep the route up for me." Nicole took off down the road, staying in the middle of all the ruins. They had built the highways here with high walls on either side to keep the sound down for the homes and businesses that had once lined either side; however, it now just made it look like she was running down a dry river channel.

They traveled south at a quick pace, staying on the path the Ghost had set. Snow had fallen again while she slept; hopefully the winter season would end soon, her armor was not the best insulator. Nicole used the run to practice her language lessons, her Ghost would say a phrase in english and then she would repeat it back to him in the language of the Fallen. It was hopefully helpful, though she had no way of knowing if she was actually pronouncing it correctly. The scenery was a lot of rust, greens and greys, not much at all to look at; she needed something to keep her busy to pass the time.

Eventually the highway evened out and lost its concrete walls, switching to something slightly elevated above the land around it. The land here was flatter, losing the hills and steep valleys she had been running through for the last two hours. It was a welcomed change. These were wide valleys, she could see the other side but it was a good distance away. Though she could see why the Ghost had brought her all this way, this valley was filled with massive flat buildings. Warehouses, by the hundreds. She came to a stop outside the first warehouse. "Alright, one last phrase, lay it out for me."

"How about you translate what I say?" her Ghost said. "Here it goes, Hiss hiss, chitter chitter, growl growl."

"Rude." Nicole frowned and summoned her Ghost to her hand. He appeared, with his fins formed into what her mind interpreted as a snide smirk. She pulled her hand away from beneath the Ghost and gently slapped the little ball.

"Okay fine, fine." The Ghost twitched its fins and flew around Nicole's helmet. "Shall we find out if there is anything of use here?"

"Yeah, okay." Nicole hopped over a rusted container truck partially buried in the eroded soil. There were a lot of scenes like that across the area she had explored; piles of earth and vegetation had gathered along walls or anything else that got in the way of the wind and rain. An entrance to this monolithic concrete structure was thankfully shielded by the container; one of the loading dock doors had rusted and fallen away. She walked inside and glanced around the massive open space, columns were evenly placed in the open space, supporting the ceiling far above her. Rows and rows of metal racks were filled with crates and the remains of ancient cardboard boxes... Their contents rotted and growing moss.

"Well, I don't see anything here that looks like it can be salvaged," the Ghost said, flying around and through the shelves. "There are a large amount of computer screen mounts, not that we need any of those right now."

Nicole shook her head, "No, nothing valuable for us... though, if we did need it, could you do what you did to my gun? Clean it up and make it work again?"

"Possibly, but I was only able to do that because I had some glimmer, that is programmable matter, to reconfigure into the missing parts," he replied. "My reserves are running very low right now."

"Where do we get you more? I'm sure there there's bound to be some stored in one of these warehouses." Nicole walked further into the structure and passed a rusted forklift, some yellow paint flakes were still barely holding onto the frame.

"Glimmer could be found anywhere really; Bits of Golden Age technology house components made from the stuff, but there does not appear to be any here anymore." The Ghost spun around the old forklift, his eye scanning over its surface. He mumbled afterwards, she could barely hear him. "Oh my, this thing was ancient during the Golden Age..."

She hopped over an area where the floor had given way to the basement below, though she spied a promising sign not too far ahead.  _Vault Storage_. Nicole stopped before a set of massive doors, and waved the Ghost over. "Can you get these open? They look like they haven't been touched yet, and vaults always hold something good, right?"

The little machine sailed over and shot a beam of light at the control panel that she assumed belonged to the door. "Just a little repair work to bring this back online... as long as the cables to the motors are still intact."

As soon as he finished, there was a loud rumble as dust and rust broke free of the doors. They slid with a loud screeching that echoed across the cavernous space. Daylight streamed in from inside the doors, a bad sign to the integrity of the room beyond. Nicole raised her hand to block the sun, and then frowned at what she saw inside. The space was dominated by dozens of large wooden crates. Moss was plentiful, along with grass and ferns that grew on top of the old crates. The boxes themselves were taller than she was, but otherwise unimpressive. Stenciled across the front of one crate nearest to her were the words ' _Vault N042'._

"Who the hell calls a wooden crate, a Vault?" She muttered, walking over to one over on its own and yanking the panel marked ' _Door'_  free from its rusted clamps. The inside was equally as disappointing as the rest of the room. Crushed boxes and rotting furniture; some long dead person's belongings. Nothing that looked like it would be of any help to Nicole in her search for intact furnishings for her home. Everything here reeked of rot and mold. "Well this is all shit. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that everything here is old furniture."

Giving the entire area a once over with his scanner, her Ghost nodded in place. "It does appear so; I am only detecting small quantities of Glimmer, and nothing that can help with the hole in the ceiling back in your tower." He passed over the area one time more, "And the Glimmer is too far buried to be worth the retrieval attempt. However there does appear to be a pre-Golden Age car stored up behind the first row."

"How exactly is that useful to me?" She asked, slightly confused.

"Not at all, just an interesting bit that I noticed." He returned to her and vanished into thin air. His voice now coming from her internal helmet speakers.  _"There are a lot more Warehouses to check, however. We should get moving before dark."_

Nicole used the hole in the wall to exit the warehouse. "I am not going to search each and every one of these buildings..."

"I will do my best to indicate which buildings might be better to search, however building materials aren't exactly something that my scanners are made for."

"Got it, there has got to be something useful out here." Nicole walked on to check the next warehouse, hoping she would have better luck as the day went on.

* * *

**AN _  
_**_Apologies about the time between chapters. I am in the middle of moving right now so this hasn't exactly been my top priority. If it looks a little weird here at the end, its because I chopped the chapter in half instead of making you all wait even longer. Sorry._


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